PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is still going strong into 2018 as the PUBG Corp has moved into 1.0 territory, adding multiple patches to the game. The most recent patch re-introduced keys that unlock premium crates to the game, but eventhough it’s been revealed that the odds of getting any of the rare items in the game are stacked against you, this isn’t what most PUBG players on Steam are currently complaining about.
Instead, every update post and quite a few of the official Twitter account’s posts have players saying the same thing: “Region Lock China.”
Looking into why PUBG players so badly want China region locked from the game, it seems that since PUBG has becoming a virtual casino of sorts with the re-introduction of paid crates, many are afraid that the cheats and exploits that have been plaguing the game will be used to earn wins. More wins translates to more BP, which in turn translates to items which have a real world value on the Steam Marketplace or PUBG online gambling halls where players bet items.
Though it’s not all fear of being killed by hackers in the Region Lock China Movement. Some players are having trouble finding Squad games with people that speak their language and are being paired with Chinese players, which doesn’t sound like a very enjoyable experience at all. Though it’s not all bad. Some players report enjoying the occasional game with players from other cultures.
On the hacking front, these PUBG players that want to region lock China because of cheats and hacks aren’t wrong. In fact, Brendan Greene himself admitted that 99% of the cheaters in PUBG are coming from China. Though Region Locking China in PUBG doesn’t seem like the solution for the developers. China is a big market for gaming and has likely boosted the sales of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds immensely. Late last year, PUBG Corp inked a deal with Tencent to give them exclusive rights to the game in China and at the time they said they’d be dealing with cheaters. However, this does not seem to be the case.
Unfortunately, the solution right now for PUBG players to deal with hackers and cheaters in the game is to simply report them. This solution is one that updated just a few days ago with PUBG Corp saying that “combating cheaters is one of our highest priorities at the moment.” The new replay system in the game now allows players to report suspected cheaters through it directly. While this should help in determining who is and who isn’t cheating in PUBG, the complaints continue to mount. You don’t have to look very far to see countless videos of players using hacks in PUBG that allow them to basically insta-kill anyone from anywhere on the map.
While it doesn’t sound like PUBG Corp is going to go down the road of Region Locking China, many fans adamantly believe that not doing it will ruin their enjoyment and experience with the game.
